When Deng Ming left Laizhou with the Qing Dynasty to destroy the Ming army, Xiong Sen, the prefect appointed by the Qing Dynasty, was under house arrest in the city by the Gentry Council.

The composition of the Gentleman's House in Laizhou is complex and mixed, especially after hearing Deng Ming's announcement that he would not immediately send large soldiers to Shandong, many people in the House of Representatives are even thinking about leaving a way out. Originally, they all set up their own regiments to practice, which is not much different from killing officials and rebelling, but Deng Ming constantly reassures everyone, first of all, the law does not blame the public, no matter how arrogant the Qing court is, it does not dare to kill all the gentry and heroes in half of the province; The second is that Deng Ming also taught them a lot of reasons, just to eliminate the villain, the slogan of "Qingjun side" has been used by traitors throughout the ages.

"You can be said to be forced to do so, in order to preserve the fire of allegiance to the imperial court and have to make compromises," Deng Ming estimated that with the continuous growth of the Ming army of Fuqing, sooner or later the gentry council will realize that they don't need to be afraid of the governor of Shandong at all, but now it is still necessary to continue to give courage to those wall grass, after all, there are still most of the wall grass in the Jin gentry chamber: "As long as all the gentry in Jiaodong participate in the house, then the Qing court will be amnesty, otherwise Jiaodong will not be able to rule; But if you are soft-hearted and allow a large number of gentry to stay out of the way, then the Qing court will find an assistant to help it maintain its rule, and your chances of being pardoned will be much smaller. ”

Deng Ming's advocacy made more gentry settle down to pull every neighbor into the House. This not only strengthened the strength of the Jin Gentry Council, but also made their party more complicated, not only could they not kick Gao Yunxuan, the officers specially cultivated by Deng Ming, out of the Fuqing Ming Army in Jiaodong, but they had to try their best to win them over - and when the relationship was familiar, Gao Yunxuan and the others should also be able to find their allies in the House.

Because everyone is worried about accepting the Qing court's recruitment after Deng Ming's withdrawal of troops, everyone does not dare to do things absolutely now, let alone anyone who provokes and says that they want to kill Xiong Senxiong Prefect. At first, there were concerns that this would lead to Deng Ming's dissatisfaction, but Deng Ming generously stated that he would not question the decision of the Laizhou Assembly, which was an internal affair for their Shandong people.

The officers of the Three Walls also had doubts about Deng Ming's decision, and although Deng Ming had promised to respect the Gentlemen of Laizhou, Xiong Sen and the others were official officials of the Qing court, and killing him would still serve as a vote.

"Yes, this is a good vote, but the gentlemen are well aware of this, and they will certainly try to get rid of themselves, and if I force them to participate, it will probably provoke revolt and resentment; And if a few people are not stained with blood and cannot be cleaned, they and those who are not stained with blood will not be a family, and others will also ponder the steps to sacrifice them to the Qing court. No, I hope they share the blessings and misfortunes, and if they are unlucky, no one will want to run, so that they can cooperate better. Deng Ming felt that Xiong Sen's immortality also had other benefits, such as letting him see more of the inside story of the cooperation between the Jinshen Council and himself, and sooner or later the Jinshen Yuan would feel that this person was a hot potato, and he couldn't let it go, and he couldn't kill it: "And the last point, if I want to kill Xiong Sen, maybe someone will buy it from him immediately, and maybe I will help him escape to win the appreciation of the Qing court for myself." And now that I don't kill Xiong Sen, these wall grasses will have no chance to buy the Qing court. Well, yes, I'm going to post an example in a moment announcing my intention to pardon Xiong Sen and persuade him to work for me. Xiong Sen will definitely use this to put gold on his face in the future, saying that he has kept the courtiers of the Qing Dynasty under my coercion and inducement - so that the Qing court may not hold him accountable for the loss of his land. Isn't there a chance to buy the Qing court and Xiong Sen? I'll take all the roads first, so that the gentry have no way out. ”

……

Because Deng Ming and the Jin Gentry House had their own calculations, Xiong Sen and the other magistrates were treated well, and no one was executed after being captured.

After entering the Dengzhou Mansion, the Fuqing Ming army surrounded the county seat, and the first thing they did was to coerce and win over the local gentry to join the parliament. Although he was very polite to the out-of-town officials led by the Xiong Governor's Mansion, he was not polite to the local gentry who tried to be alone, and he was not polite at all to help the Qing Dynasty destroy the Ming army. Shandong gentry were inextricably linked with each other, and they would generally find his world friends, classmates and even teachers to persuade them, but most of the gentry could not bear the threat of favors, so they joined the parliament and provided food and soldiers to the great cause of Fuqing.

But sometimes I will meet one or two diehards who say nothing and refuse to share the hardships with everyone. At this time, the Fu Ming army will follow the old method in Laizhou and arrest this guy and try him for his Tongdeng crimes. If the person repents at this time, he can still enter the house. It was in this situation that two or three thorns wept and announced their support for the great cause of Fuqing. When the Fuqing army beat gongs and drums to escort them home wearing golden flowers and riding tall horses, they were often still crying bitterly - but the Fuqing army turned a blind eye to this, and most of the people in the house came over, and they called this "crying with joy"; After becoming a member of the council, they will also hang a large plaque in their home that reads "Loyal to the monarch and patriotism, and support the Qing Dynasty to extinguish the Ming Dynasty". Whoever dares to take it off secretly at night is the current Tongdeng criminal - in terms of coercing the gentry into the gang, the Gentry House is becoming more and more proficient.

However, there were two die-hard elements who did not open their eyes, and they still shouted "swear to die and do not obey the thief" in the court, and the colleagues of the Gentleman's House who were slandered as thieves were of course furious and dragged the two traitors out and beheaded. When one of them was in front of the executioner, he was still shouting: "I am worthy of the Qing Dynasty and the emperor today." After the execution of this traitor who fornicated with Deng Ming, the Gentry House used all his family property as military supplies, and everyone, including his friends and relatives, spat at the headless corpse - this unconscionable guy actually wanted to be alone and sell his lives to invite the Qing court, which was really innocent.

Since the middle of last year, the Yuqisho Department on Asan has been living like a year. Yu Qida's manor, located in Jieguan Pavilion, was burned by Jieshu, which was the largest private villa in Shandong and even in China at that time. Prince Kang was shocked when he saw the scale of the Yujia manor in Jieguanting, because this manor was actually more magnificent than his prince's mansion.

To the east, there is the Asan Mountains, with a radius of seven or eight hundred miles. Yu Qi and his allies hid in it. The rebel army driven into the mountains by Prince Kang's army was as high as more than 100,000 people, many of whom were of course Yu Qi's friends, but more of them were the surrounding people, as well as some small landlords and their tenants who had no reputation.

Seeing that the terrain in the mountainous area of Asan was complicated, and Yu Qi had been operating for many years, and his defenses were very strong, Jieshu and Kupilon gave up the idea of attacking. They ordered the army to surround Asan, set up camps and guards on all passages, and then drove the surrounding knights, bandits, peasants, and common people into the mountains of Asan. Every time a large number of people were driven by the Qing army, the sentry opened a road for them to enter the mountain, and then closed the passage to prevent them from leaving.

Although Yu Qi is very rich and has stored a lot of grain in advance, more than 100,000 people plus their relatives can eat up Yu Qi's reserves within a year. Although Prince Kang left after the Jiangnan warning, the remaining Qing troops still carried out Prince Kang's deployment to the letter, strictly guarding the passage around Asan and not allowing anyone to leave alive.

After seeing the influx of refugees, some of Yu Qi's allies realized the threat, and some advocated resolute expulsion and never allowed them to go near the cottage; There are even some bandits who advocate simply killing the people and eating meat, as if the Qing army drove the two-legged sheep, and when the Qing army realizes that their treacherous plan cannot succeed, they will not continue to drive people here, so that the Qing army still needs to storm Asan or put forward the conditions for peace.

Yu Qi had been indecisive since the uprising, and did not show enough cruelty in this matter, not only did he not eat the common people, but he also accepted them into the cottage and provided them with the necessary rations. At that time, Zu Zepu also participated in the siege of the mountain, and after discovering Yu Qi's operation, this veteran who had guarded Jinzhou with his father laughed, congratulating Prince Kang for not worrying about the traitor, and continuously driving more people into the Asan area.

Today, Zhang Dingnan and Zhang Daxia took his disciples to inspect the defense area.

After Jieshu left Shandong, the insufficient Qing army did not drive more people into the mountains, so that Yu Qi's collapse came a little later. Despite this, Asan's reserves bottomed out. Now there are so many people that they can't accommodate the cottage, so many people set up simple tents in the cottage, hide in it with their families, and live on the little food distributed every day.

It was already winter, and the food ration distributed to the refugees had been reduced to two taels per person per day. As Zhang Dingnan walked past the camp as he walked past the camp with bright eyes — it is said that the sooner a person stared to death, the brighter the eyes would appear.

Not far away, a person kowtowed to Zhang Dingnan and his party: "Give me a steamed bun, take the little girl away." ”

The two girls kneeling next to the man, one looked to be twelve or thirteen years old, the other probably eight or nine years old, both with straw sticks on their heads. Their mother had died in agony, and the father still fantasized about having someone who could feed his daughter to take his child.

Yesterday, there was a fierce quarrel in the Chinese military tent, and it was impossible for the military rations to support until after the first month, and many bandits strongly demanded that Yu Daxia stop supplying food to the refugees.

They shouted at Yu Qi: "If the heroes are starving to death, then these people will not survive." ”

Under the coercion and urging of everyone, Yu Da was in tears, he said that these people were his fellow villagers and elders, and he was implicated because he raised the army, how could he watch them starve to death.

Thinking of this, Zhang Dingnan let out a long sigh. From the standpoint of an outsider, it is easy for him to see Yu Qi's problems clearly: Yu Qi does not have the courage to take a desperate gamble, and he always has illusions about the Qing court; There is no ruthlessness to survive with a broken arm, and seeing that the mountains and rivers are exhausted, he still does not have the courage to fight to the death with the Qing army blocking the road. Yu Qi's talent is only worthy of being a hero, in addition to his temperament, he also lacks military ability - the reason why Yu Qi does not have the courage to break through is also because he knows very well that he will be defeated if he leaves Asan.

However, if Zhang Dingnan was transferred to Yu Qi's position, he didn't dare to say that he could do better than Yu Qi, be able to eat people ruthlessly, or train a death squad to break through the blockade of the Qing army - however, Zhang Dingnan felt that he would at least dare to try.

After yesterday's meeting, Yu Qi announced that the heroes' rations should also be cut, in order to hold out for a longer period of time, waiting for the situation to change - if it drags on for a few more months, the heroes may not even have the strength to try.

Is this how you starved to death here?

"Master, Master!" Just when Zhang Dingnan was at a loss, he suddenly saw a personal disciple running over with a happy face, and shouted at him from a distance: "The siege has been lifted!" The siege was lifted. ”

"What?" Zhang Dingnan was taken aback, and couldn't help but hope rose in his heart again: "Could it be that the imperial court is really going to be amnesty, and is it going to recruit us?" ”